Panel consolidates Health Care Providers v. Payers in Illinois
Judge Matthew Kennelly will manage a barrage of suits over whether how payers decide what to pay is legal.
A panel of federal judges has picked U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly to oversee pretrial proceedings for a barrage of health care provider antitrust suits.
Kennelly will handle In Re: MultiPlan Health Insurance Provider Litgation in the U.S. District Court for the U.S. District of Illinois.
The plaintiffs are group medical practices, health care systems and other health care providers.
The plaintiffs that filed the MultiPlan suits accused MultiPlan, a New York-based health care provider network manager, of working with large insurers to hold down prices for out-of-network care in an unfair way.
The outcome of the case could affect efforts by health insurers and employers with self-funded health plans to negotiate with out-of-network doctors and hospitals.
The outcome could, ultimately, also affect whether plans pay prices high enough to keep the the supply of health care providers and health care services stable, or whether court-driven reimbursement changes will reshape the care supply.
The suits
MultiPlan runs electronic systems that help providers determine how much specific patients from specific health plans will pay.
The plaintiffs have accused MultiPlan of using data from health plans customers to find out what plans are paying and propose prices that are far below what the plaintiffs think they should be paid.
MultiPlan predicts that it will reduce out-of-network claims by about 61% to 81%, and it then collects up to 9.75% of the savings, according to the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs describe the discounting process as the result of MultiPlan forcing providers to accept underpayments.
In practice, many providers cannot dispute the offers, because disputing the officers is difficult and time-consulting, the plaintiffs contend.
MultiPlan has stated that the lawsuit has no merit.
“We look forward to disproving these baseless allegations,” the company said. “MultiPlan plays a vital role in helping to reduce health care costs across the entire health care ecosystem, benefiting payors, providers, employers, and patients.”
The list of plaintiffs includes companies like Curtis F. Robinson M.D., Allegiance Health Management, Live Well Chiropractic PLLC and Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corp..
Related: MultiPlan faces barrage of price-fixing suits in New York
The list of defendants includes Elevance Health, Centene, Cigna, Health Care Service Corp., UnitedHealth Group and CVS’s Aetna unit as well as MultiPlan.
The multidistrict litigation
The federal courts use a ‘multidistrict litigation” strategy to try to save time and money, and increase consistency, for cases involving many plaintiffs; a similar or closely related group of defendants; and similar situations and legal arguments.
A five-judge multidistrict litigation panel reported that all parties involved agreed that the suits should move forward in one court but that some preferred to see the suits handled in courts in California or New York.
The panel decided to go with the court in the Northern District of Illinois because six of the suits involved were filed there.
“Judge Matthew F. Kennelly is well-versed in the nuances of complex and multidistrict litigation, and we are confident he will steer this litigation on a prudent course,” the panel said.
Kennelly will start out coordinating six cases.
The multidistrict litigation panel suggested as many as 18 other cases look as if they could also be consolidated under Kennelly.